Orchard in Blossom

Van Gogh reached Arles in February 1888, in snow, and a few weeks later the fruit orchards on the plain around the town came into flower all at once. He worked through that spring at speed, apricot, almond, peach, apple, and in this canvas plum, because the blossom holds for only a few days. This one did not end in Arles. He kept it, took it with him when he moved to the hospital at Saint-Rémy the following year, and went back into it from memory, saying he had found a better way to express the harmony of the tones. That is why the catalogues give the painting two dates, one for the orchard he stood in and one for the room where he changed it.